Money Shot (Hard Case Crime #40)
by Christa Faust
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 139)
Read in March, 2008
So far, I've been a big fan of everything I've read that Hard Case Crime have released. They have a purposefully retro aesthetic, and are trying to bring back both the lurid appearance and dark, intense style of the pulp crime novels that were popular half a century ago. If the sales at the bookstore where I work are any indication, this is a popular idea. It's certainly something I'm into. It could be a total failure if the books weren't good, but all of the ones I've read so far have totally d...more
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Read in March, 2008
Christa Faust's Money Shot is the first Hard Case Crime original I've read, and it's a doozy. Some have complained that the new paperback originals that Hard Case publish are too self-conscious, and work too hard at recreating all the conventions of pulp narratives from the '40s, '50s, and '60s without taking the time to think about whether or not those conventions might work in a modern setting, or even why they may have worked in the first place, but this is definitely not the case with...more
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Read in February, 2008
I got this for a birthday present. I am a big fan of pulp novels. One summer, in my twenties, I read all of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer books simply because I never understood what people meant when they said, "Like a Mickey Spillane book..." My favorite in the genre (like most people) would be Jim Thompson. Anyway, I didn't know they had started this kind of press up, for people like us who buy the old cheesy paperbacks in thrift stores just for the covers. You could read it in a...more
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Read in February, 2008
I didn't like this one as much as I'd hoped to. It starts out well with the kind of female protagonist I like. The book opens with Gina Moretti, a former porn star (stage name Angel Dare) narrating. She's beaten, bound and gagged in the trunk of a car. She flashes back to how she ended up in this predicament and the book takes off from there. The problems I had were that the plot isn't very plausible. She's on the run for a murder she didn't commit. Her gun was used in an execution style m...more
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Read in August, 2008
I am not reading the reading the Hard Case crime books in order but based on what I happen to find in the store at the time. I have not read one of these set in modern times - they seem to take place in 1940's - 1960's.
This book was a first for the series with a female author. For me it was the first set in modern times mentioning Target, the internet, and an occasional f-bomb immediately caught my attention since I usually read the older unabridged HCC books. This was also the first for ...more
This book was a first for the series with a female author. For me it was the first set in modern times mentioning Target, the internet, and an occasional f-bomb immediately caught my attention since I usually read the older unabridged HCC books. This was also the first for ...more
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Read in February, 2008
An ex-porn star who now runs her own "porn star" management service Daring Angels, "Angel Dare" is a Jenna Jameson-type modern day porn queen turned business woman who gets mixed up in a Romanian sex-slave import deal. Angel gets implicated in a murder she didn't commit (she was being raped while an acquaintance was being murdered) and from there she's on the lamb trying to get even. Her friends die left and right around her and other friends throw her to the curb and burn ...more
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This is the one I joined HCC for and I've been digging it. Admittedly, I haven't gotten very far bc The Man insists I pull my shifts for a living, but the 70 pages I've been through have been excellent---witty, bawdy, fast-paced, lotsa action. You gotta love a book with a dead man named Sam Hammer and a heroine who keeps comparing her various injuries to the titles of her checkered porn oeuvre. Fun indeed.
UPDATE: Well, I just finished it. Snap cracklin' fun. The plot's a little bland and I d...more
UPDATE: Well, I just finished it. Snap cracklin' fun. The plot's a little bland and I d...more
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Read in March, 2008
MONEY SHOT captured my attention so completely that, while reading it on my lunch hour one day, I didn't hear my food order called out and the cook actually had to come over to my table to get my attention.
Within the first few pages, I developed a fondness for Angel Dare and truly cared what happened to her. I was angry when she found out about [data embargo] and felt her grief over [data embargo]. I was also sad when [data embargo] and totally caught off guard by [data embargo].
My apol...more
Within the first few pages, I developed a fondness for Angel Dare and truly cared what happened to her. I was angry when she found out about [data embargo] and felt her grief over [data embargo]. I was also sad when [data embargo] and totally caught off guard by [data embargo].
My apol...more
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Read in March, 2008
Surprisingly tame for a book with a former porn star as the protaganist!
The first female author on the HCC roster and it's a solid addition (the amazing Meghan Abbott will likely be the second)...
The worst part of the book (thus the only thing deserving commentary) is Glen Orbik's cover painting. Almost all of the covers in the series depict (some accurately and some loosely) a moment in the book. This one has Angel Dare naked on the cover, but with almost no context.
Orbik did a m...more
The first female author on the HCC roster and it's a solid addition (the amazing Meghan Abbott will likely be the second)...
The worst part of the book (thus the only thing deserving commentary) is Glen Orbik's cover painting. Almost all of the covers in the series depict (some accurately and some loosely) a moment in the book. This one has Angel Dare naked on the cover, but with almost no context.
Orbik did a m...more
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Read in February, 2008
Fantastic! In this crime noir, the owner of an adult-modeling agency -- a former porn star herself -- goes on the lam when evil sex traffickers frame her for murder. It was fascinating to read about the adult film industry and the seamy underside of life in L.A., written by a woman who has some experience with that world. And I loved the protagonist -- a tough, independent woman trying to adjust to impossible circumstances and to make the bad guys pay for destroying her old life. I'm definitely...more
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Read in February, 2008
recommends it for:
Walmart and Payless Shoes porn
I hate porn puns and I hate product placements all through the book for Target and Walmart and Payless Shoes and it was a slimy, gross book anyway and I didn't care what happened to the tough as nails porn star and I don't know who was a bigger whore, the porn star or the author for shilling for all these white trash consumer dungeons.
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Has a copy to sell/swap
This was a fun, gritty crime novel about a porn star who is done wrong, tossed in a trunk for dead and is out to get her revenge.
If you are looking for something fun to read on the beach, this book is definitely it.
Between this and Hoodtown, Christa Faust is definitely an author to watch for me. I can't wait to see what she does next.
If you are looking for something fun to read on the beach, this book is definitely it.
Between this and Hoodtown, Christa Faust is definitely an author to watch for me. I can't wait to see what she does next.
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Read in February, 2008
First book I've read from this author, and if I didn't KNOW it was a modern novel and the setting, I would think it was a reprint of a 50's hard boiled novel. Set in the world of adult film, it's not a sex novel, it's a hard boiled crime novel. Probably the best of this excellent line in the last year.
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If you like ultra-dark hardboiled Noir fiction, with a ferociously cool main character, action-packed, tense, blackly humorous writing, and some insider's insights regarding the underbelly of the American sex industry, then lemme tell ya...Miz Christa Faust has GOT THE GOODS. Read This!
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Read in May, 2008
The problem with the newer Hard Case Crime novels (as opposed to the vintage reprints) is not the inability of current authors to find the right voice (although that's definitely a challenge for them), but their inability to infuse the stories with any class or pathos. Case in point...
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Read in February, 2008
Pornstars, murder, doublecrosses. . .what's not to like? Another solid Hard Case Crime book, though I have to say, I found a TON of spelling and grammar errors. A very fast read; these really are the perfect travel books: great stories at a fast clip.
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Read in January, 2008
recommended to Megan by:
Bookgasm
Goddamn, I need to read more noir. This book gets an A++ from me, but I mean, how can it not? A porn star out for revenge after being raped, shot, and left for dead in the trunk of a shitty Honda? That is A++ material right there, folks!
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Read in January, 2008
Started out great but the final third was a let down. I've tried a couple of books from the Hard Case series and they have been disappointing. I am going to try some of the classics they have reissued.
Great characters, however.
Great characters, however.
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Murder and intrigue set against the world of adult film-making. Hard-edged noir style crime story. Great fun.
This is the first book from the Hard Case Crime series I've read. I have a dizen more on order.
This is the first book from the Hard Case Crime series I've read. I have a dizen more on order.
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
fans of gritty noir and Sam Fuller movies
Former porn star wakes up in the trunk of a car after a failed murder attempt, gets herself out and then works her way through finding everybody who did this to her and exacting revenge. Never a dull moment.
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